Dragonspell - Donita K. Paul [66]
With the edge taken off her hunger, Kale turned back to her role with the ailing emerlindian and Gymn. She wondered if the healing process would be as exhilarating as it had been when they worked on Celisse’s wounds. Leetu’s wounds were deep in her being—old, not fresh—and inflicted by an evil touch. Celisse’s wounds had been to the surface flesh, relatively newly dealt, and delivered by an arrow rather than the physical touch of wickedness. This would not be a simple healing.
Feeling unequal to her task, Kale positioned herself next to Leetu with Gymn again on the emerlindian’s cheek. Hoping Wulder would strengthen her poor efforts, the o’rant girl placed her hands in the correct position to complete the circle.
Kale felt Dar and Shimeran move away. They would plot the freedom of the other prisoners. Kale would concentrate on Leetu.
When Dar nudged Kale’s shoulder, she realized she must have fallen asleep. She lay beside Leetu, her hands still touching the emerlindian and Gymn, making the healing circle.
“Kale.” Dar’s voice penetrated the fog of her mind. She raised her head without letting go of the circle. She tried to focus on Dar’s face but found that his long sideburns on fuzzy cheeks blurred with the rock wall behind him.
He spoke quietly. “Shimeran has gathered all the kimens who live within the fortress.”
“They live inside?” Her voice felt hoarse.
“Yes, as uninvited tenants. In fact, Risto doesn’t know they are here.”
Dar’s eyes traveled around the dingy cell. He looked ill at ease. She noticed Shimeran’s light had been replaced with a torch on the wall.
Dar fingered a small metal pick and held it up for her to see. “I am undoing the locks while the kimens are gone.”
“We’re alone?”
“We are never alone.” Dar’s word echoed strongly on the solid walls. He straightened his shoulders.
She struggled to understand the doneel’s words. The intense process of healing Leetu shielded her thoughts from the things going on around her. He had said someone was gone, and they weren’t alone. It didn’t make sense. “Gone? Who’s gone?”
“The kimens. They’ve gone out to gather more of their people. Those kimens who are used to being inside the walls will guide kimens from outside into the fortress. Our hope is there will be one kimen to help each of these prisoners escape.”
Kale nodded. Her head sank back to the ground.
Some time later she felt a touch on her wrist. She opened her eyes. Dar bent over her, fastening a slender green rope on her arm.
“What is that?” she whispered.
“A glean band. It will protect you when the hornets attack.”
Kale sat up, letting go of both Leetu and Gymn. “Hornets?” Groggy from her sleep and the healing, she looked around the room for a battalion of stinging insects. Instead, she saw a dungeon devoid of prisoners.
“Not here yet,” said Dar as he placed the same kind of bracelet around Leetu’s limp arm. “I am learning the most amazing things, Kale. Kimens have warriors and arm themselves with natural weapons. They plan to bomb the bisonbeck soldiers with hornet nests. Clever, don’t you think?”
Kale shook the muzzy feeling from her brain. “Dar, what’s going on? Did the magic return and cover the people, or are we really alone? How long have I been asleep?”
“Whoa!” Dar sat back on his heels and grinned at her. His ears perked above his head and waggled with excitement. “It’s nearly dawn. Awhile ago the captives were taken inside the castle, being fed and given water, and helping themselves to clothing from the servants’ quarters.
“But now they are hidden in the third quadrant, awaiting the kimens’ diversion. While the outer quadrants are in confusion, they will escape. In the forest, villagers summoned by